The Disappearance of Kelly Dove

Crime and Punishment - The Disappearance of Kelly Dove

Kelly Bergh Dove worked at the Imperial gas station on South Main Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The married mother of a 4-year-old daughter, Dove had completed high school a year early and was enrolled to attend Blue Ridge Community College in September.

Dove’s three sisters all worked at the Imperial Station, then the lone building on an isolated span of the road about a mile south of the James Madison University campus. On Thursday night, June 17, Dove decided to trade with one of her sisters and work the overnight shift.

On the evening of June 18, 1982, 20-year-old Kelly Dove was working the graveyard shift lonely at the gas station. Sometime during the night, Kelly disappeared without evidence but not before she revealed some alarming incidents of harassment to the police.

Quickly after midnight, Kelly phoned police to report that she was getting improper phone calls. She asked the police to check on her, but they never appeared. Later, Kelly called the police again to report that she was being harassed by a male client, implying that he had indecently uncovered himself to her. At nearly 2:30 AM, a scared Kelly called 911 for the third time to report another obscene phone call. She also contended that the same customer had yanked into the parking lot in a silver Ford. 

The police eventually decided to check on her, but Kelly was gone when they came two minutes later. Her handbag had been left behind, but there were no indications of any battle or robbery. The police earned critique for not going to the station until Kelly’s third 911 call. They also disregarded to close the store or dust for fingerprints after her disappearance. Kelly’s family has always thought that a former high school acquaintance of hers with a past of unpleasant exposure and improper phone calls might be credible for the disappearance. But no information has ever tied him to the scene.

Dove was lawfully declared dead in 1989 after seven years had passed with no clue of life. Her body has never been discovered, and no one has ever been accused of her disappearance. Investigators deemed various people as probable suspects but could never unravel the disappearance.

Kelly Dove remains missing after more than 30 years. But maybe the most awful part of her story is that she had exchanged shifts with her sister and wasn’t even thought to be working that night.